Actor Timothée Chalamet, who stars in the upcoming musical fantasy film “Wonka,” said he didn’t initially want to sign on to the project.
The 27-year-old said he’s skeptical about sequels and remakes in general. “Wonka” tells the origin story of Willy Wonka, a character in the 1964 novel “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl. The book was made into a movie, “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,” in 1971. It was remade in 2005 with Johnny Depp playing Wonka.
“Like many people, when there are remakes, I feel very protective over the original character and versions you love,” Chalamet said during an interview with GamesRadar+. “Your eyebrows go up with skepticism about [whether] this is a legitimate, worthwhile story or a cynical money grab.”
Chalamet said he only had to read three pages of the script to change his mind. “The song ‘Hat Full of Dreams’ was in there,” he said of the movie’s opening musical number.
“And there was no music to accompany it, but the lyrics were so clever. [It’s] about this young Willy, who was definitively not the crazy, cynical, kind of jaded, brain-fried version that we see in the two prior films but was very hopeful, young, ambitious, won’t-take-no-for-an-answer, maybe a little naive. I think that’s very clever.”
The “Dune” actor said he wasn’t initially looking for a role that required singing and dancing, but this one was an exception. “I love musical theater and I love song and dance,” Chalamet told the outlet. “And I love old Fred Astaire movies and the original ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ with Gene Wilder. I didn’t think I’d get a chance to do it, not like this. But [movie director] Paul King is one of these directors that you don’t say no to.”
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King said in a previous interview with Rolling Stone that Chalamet didn’t need to audition because he was “the only person in my mind who could [be Wonka].”
Early reviews of “Wonka” are mixed, but critics have praised Chalamet’s performance. The movie hits theaters nationwide on December 15.